Gyobutsuji Zen Monastery

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Gyobutsuji Zen Monastery is a small Soto Zen Buddhist monastery near Kingston, Arkansas, in the Ozarks’ Boston Mountains. It follows the Zen line taught by Kosho Uchiyama and Shohaku Okumura, with Shōryū Bradley (the founder) being a student of Okumura. The monastery emphasizes zazen (sitting meditation) and study of the Dharma as taught by Eihei Dōgen and Shakyamuni Buddha.

The community holds a five-day sesshin each month, except in February and August. These Uchiyama-style sesshins include 14 periods of zazen (50 minutes each) and 10 minutes of kinhin (walking meditation) between periods, with no liturgy, dokusan, or ōryōki during the retreat.

Gyōbutsu-ji means “Practice Buddha Temple,” a name drawn from Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, specifically the Gyōbutsu igi chapter. Dōgen reinterpreted the phrase as the “dignified actions of the Practice Buddha,” conveying the idea that practice and enlightenment are the same. The chapter teaches that all Buddhas practice dignified conduct, and that this conduct is the Practice Buddha—shared with the universe in the oneness of practice and Buddha.